Nintendo Announces Super NES Classic Edition

Long Story Short

Nintendo announced that they're releasing a SNES Classic Edition, following on the blockbuster success of the NES Classic Edition. The small console will cost $79.99, and will come loaded with 21 games. It goes on sale September 29.

Long Story

When Nintendo released the NES Classic last year, the internet lost its collective mind because it represented a convenient, affordable way to play all of your favorite games from the 80s. It was novel and wildly popular, but the sad truth is that anyone who went on to play bigger and better consoles knows that it's tough to really get into 8-bit games for more than a couple of hours at a time -- they were great in their day, and still largely hold up, but we've come a long way since then.

Today, however, Nintendo announced a real blockbuster: they're following on the success of the NES Classic with a Super NES Classic Edition. It'll cost $79.99 when it's released September 29 (if you can get your hands on one, that is). In 1991, the SNES was released for $199. That's almost $362 in today's money, and you definitely didn't get 21 games with the console back then.

“While many people from around the world consider the Super NES to be one of the greatest video game systems ever made, many of our younger fans never had a chance to play it,” Doug Bowser, Nintendo of America’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing said in a press release. “With the Super NES Classic Edition, new fans will be introduced to some of the best Nintendo games of all time, while longtime fans can relive some of their favorite retro classics with family and friends.”

The little palm-sized console comes packed with 21 SNES games, and unlike the NES Classic, there's legitimately not a bad one to be found:

Contra III: The Alien Wars

Donkey Kong Country

EarthBound

Final Fantasy III

F-ZERO

Kirby™ Super Star

Kirby’s Dream Course

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Mega Man® X

Secret of Mana

Star Fox

Star Fox 2

Street Fighter® II Turbo: Hyper Fighting

Super Castlevania IV

Super Ghouls ’n Ghosts

Super Mario Kart

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

Super Mario World

Super Metroid

Super Punch-Out!!

Yoshi’s Island

It's a bummer that they didn't include Chrono Trigger (the best RPG of the ere, imo), but Secret of Mana and Super Mario RPG are both good as hell. If one game on there -- Star Fox 2 -- seems unfamiliar, that's because it was never released. You'll have to unlock it by playing Star Fox (just completing the first level, actually), but it means that not only are you getting 21 games for a low price, one of them is something totally new. The system also comes with a HDMI cable, one USB charging cable with AC adapter and two wired SNES Classic Controllers.

According to Kotaku, Nintendo won't make the same supply mistake with the SNES classic as they did with the NES Classic -- namely, they didn't release enough of them and people were pissed about it. They aren't giving out hard numbers, but they do say they'll ship "significantly more" SNES classic units.

They'd better, because everyone's going to want one.

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Ask The Big Question

Will they really ship enough, or will some people be left empty handed come Christmas?

Drop This Fact

As of Saturday, sales of Nintendo's flagship Switch system surpasses 1 million in Japan. It likely would have done so sooner, but they (again) ran into supply problems.